


all the people mobilize

by sabinelagrande



Series: Desperation Song [4]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Kidnapping, Post-Canon, mild violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-29
Updated: 2011-09-29
Packaged: 2017-10-24 03:36:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/258511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabinelagrande/pseuds/sabinelagrande
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Strange bedfellows.</p>
            </blockquote>





	all the people mobilize

When Kurt blinks awake, there are people talking over him, voices he isn't familiar with speaking a language he doesn't know. His first instinct is to bamf away; just before he can, someone slaps something cold and heavy around his wrist, and he can't go anywhere at all. He kicks and scratches and bites instead, his tail waving dangerously, but suddenly, everything goes dark.

\--

Magneto wakes up knowing something's wrong; he's had enough mornings like this that he trusts his instincts. He picks up his communicator from the nightstand. "Emma. Report."

"Do you even know what time it is?" she responds, mid-yawn.

"You should be asking if I know what I pay you for," he snaps. "I want a full rundown."

There's silence for a moment. "Pietro and Wanda are awake and eating breakfast with Toad- you really shouldn't let him feed them all that sugary cereal. Astra didn't come back last night- no, wait, she just got in. Mastermind is asleep, as was I before you so rudely interrupted. Kurt is-" Emma breaks off.

Alarm bells are going off in Magneto's brain. "Kurt is what, Frost?"

"Kurt isn't here," Emma says, equal parts panicked and perplexed. "I can't find him anywhere on the grounds. I know he likes to hide, but- but he's not here, Magneto. I'm not picking him up at all."

Magneto punches the button on the wall beside his bed, throwing off the blankets and dressing hurriedly. The klaxons start sounding as he makes his way down the stairs and into the situation room. Mastermind is right behind him, still pulling on his jacket; Astra appears behind her chair.

Emma is, of course, late; the look on her face says she's talking to someone. "Toad is taking the twins to the panic room, then he'll be along."

"This isn't going to be like the time Pietro took off to Italy, is it?" Astra asks.

Emma shakes her head. "One, Kurt can't move that fast, and two, I could track Pietro. Kurt's off my radar."

"Shielding?" Mastermind says. "Sounds like Xavier."

Magneto thinks about it, pushing down his rage so he can focus. "This isn't the way Charles does things." He snorts. "He'd show up at the front gate and ask politely." He raps his helmet with his knuckles. "There are plenty of other ways to shield."

"Shall I be the one to say what we're all thinking?" Emma says. "Mystique and Azazel have both been here looking for Kurt. Azazel even talked to him. Granted, that was a year ago, but Azazel has plenty of time on his hands."

"Where is he?" Magneto demands.

Emma gives him a look. "You might as well ask me to find the Beaumont children. I can give you Mystique, though. She's never far away."

Magneto doesn't pause to consider what that means. "Astra. Take us there."

\--

"The one in green," Emma says quietly, pointing out a short, slightly fat man who's perusing a rack of postcards in the market of the small resort town not far from the compound.

Even though he knows, it's still disorienting to see Mystique like this. Still, he walks over, grabbing him by the arm and squeezing. "What have you done, Raven?"

"If we must do this," the man says, his eyes darting nervously at the people around them, "let us go inside, yes?" He looks coldly at Emma and Astra. "Leave them here."

Reluctantly, he nods to them, following Mystique into a nearby building; from the looks of it, she's been living here. She shuts all the curtains before she lets her real skin show. "Why are you here?" she hisses. "I have a good thing going, and you're going to screw it up."

"You know exactly why I'm here," he says, advancing on her.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she insists.

Before she can bolt, he reaches out and catches her by the throat. "Where is Kurt?"

She scratches at his hand, but his grip is fast. "I don't know, I swear!" she says; before he can tighten his hand, she shifts her form, making her neck small enough that she can wrench it from his grip. She's blue again by the time she lands on the floor, and she is livid. "You _lost_ my son?"

" _My_ son has been kidnapped," he says, and her eyes are full of worry and shock. "Who took him?"

"Don't you think I would have taken care of them if I knew?" she says angrily.

"No one else wants him as much as you do."

"You're goddamn right about that," she snaps. "If I could have taken him, I'd have done it before now."

Magneto snorts in frustration. This is getting him nowhere. "So help me God, Raven," he swears, "if I find out you're keeping anything from me-"

"You're one to talk," she returns. "So? What are your leads?"

He's momentarily stymied by the question, how she's turned it around on him. "You and Azazel are the most obvious culprits."

A shadow of pain passes over her features. "I don't know how many times I have to tell you this, Erik, but Azazel is dead."

Magneto shakes his head. "He showed up at my house last year. He even showed Kurt how to pull his little teleportation trick."

Mystique's eyes widen. "How is that possible?" He can see it run through her head, slotting into something he has no knowledge of. "That bastard," she says, her teeth clenched. "That fucking, fucking bastard." She reaches under the bed, pulling out a pair of short swords, putting them into the crossed sheaths on the back of her dress. "I'm coming with you."

Magneto gives her a look. "No, you're not."

"I'm coming with you, or I'm finding him by myself," she snaps. "You're with me or against me."

There's something in her, the fire that he recognized almost from the moment he met her, something that still calls to him. "You may assist us," he allows. "After Kurt is found, you leave."

Her hands ball into fists, but she nods. "Let's go."


End file.
